Transcription
Hey everybody. Welcome back. How much power do presidents really have? Smash that like button and let's find out.
Article 2 of the Constitution establishes the powers of the president, but it says a lot less than it did for Congress, which is our first clue that the framers envisioned Congress as the preeminent branch. Presidents have exclusive powers that can be exercised without Congress, but these are surprisingly limited. The president is commander-in-chief, can receive ambassadors, grant pardons, call a special session of Congress, and deliver the State of the Union Address. That's really it.
Notice that the president is certainly empowered over foreign policies; being in charge of the Armed Forces is definitely a big deal, and when you're in charge of launching nuclear weapons, yeah, that matters. But notice how little the president can do on his own in domestic policy according to the Constitution. And yet, the public seems to act like presidents are all-powerful. This unit should debunk that myth.
It is true, though, that presidents aren't limited to only exactly what's written in the Constitution. They rely on both formal and informal powers, and the AP exam loves to focus on this distinction. Formal powers are given by the Constitution or legislation, like her role as commander-in-chief, where the president is head of the Armed Forces, directing troop movements. Another formal power is veto power. A veto is a message to Congress where the president rejects legislation that they've passed. This is a pretty big flex by the president. In fact, sometimes the president just threatens to veto a bill, and Congress makes changes to avoid having the bill vetoed. But Congress can check that check by overriding the veto with a two-thirds vote in both houses. However, only about four percent of vetoes have been successfully overridden, so checkmate.
Presidents can also sometimes pocket veto bills. Unlike a regular veto, in this case, the president takes no action—he does nothing—and the bill doesn't become a law. Now, how can that be? When Congress passes a bill, the president has 10 days to either sign it or veto it. Normally, if the president doesn't do anything, it becomes law without her signature. But if the session of Congress ends during those 10 days and the president doesn't sign it, it does not become law. That's a pocket veto. And presidents also make trade treaties with heads of state from other countries, but these are subject to Senate ratification. Just ask Woodrow Wilson how that works out sometimes.
On the other hand, informal powers aren't given by the Constitution or a law, but presidents rely quite heavily on them. Let's start with executive orders, because there's a lot to unpack here. Executive orders are rules or regulations that have the power of law and don't require Congressional approval. Okay, hang on, that sounds like a lot of power for one person. So what's going on here? The president is head of the executive branch, so she can issue executive orders to tell the executive branch's bureaucracy how to interpret or enforce laws, and she can make rules that the executive branch has to follow.
Okay, so if presidents can just issue executive orders, why don't they just do that for everything? Why didn't Trump just repeal Obamacare by executive order? Why didn't Biden just do immigration reform by executive order? Why did they both rely on Congress to try to do it for them? Remember, presidents don't have the power to make laws; only Congress does. Executive orders must be based on either the Constitution or federal law; otherwise, they'll be struck down by the Judiciary. This prevents presidents from acting unilaterally to make policy on his or her own, and Congress can also pass legislation that supersedes the executive order. The accepted use of executive orders is directing the bureaucracy and conducting foreign policy, not making general policy for the whole nation. An informal check on this power is that excessive reliance on executive orders is generally criticized as the president taking too much power for himself and trying to circumvent separation of powers. And a major drawback is that the next president can get rid of the previous president's executive orders super easily, just by issuing new executive orders, so they aren't as permanent as legislation passed by Congress.
Presidents can also issue signing statements when signing a bill to provide her interpretation of the law, including instructions for the bureaucracy about how the bill should be enforced. For example, Obama once signed a military budget bill, and he wrote a signing statement saying that he would instruct the military not to indefinitely detain U.S. citizens, even though the law said that they could.
Presidents rely on their powers of bargaining and persuasion, especially in domestic policy, to get almost anything done, whether it's getting legislation passed, nominations confirmed, or getting Congress to open their purse and spend money. The president will have to bargain, negotiate, and compromise with Congress to get it done. And since presidents don't have many Constitutional powers, they are very dependent on their powers of persuasion to get things done. Popular presidents are far more successful persuading Congress, so the president needs both public support and Congressional support to carry out and implement their agenda. Presidents are typically most popular at the beginning of their term, so this is when they have the best chance of getting major policy changes pushed through Congress.
And one last informal power is the ability to make executive agreements—their agreements with foreign heads of state, just like treaties, but don't require Senate ratification. So the president can make the agreement, and the deal's done; nothing else to it. Of course, the downside is that the next president can exit the deal just as easily. Paris climate agreement, anybody?
All right, well, that's it for this one. Until next time, this has been A La Money Production. Thanks again for watching. Subscribe, ring the bell, smash the like button, and check out the ultimate review packet, and I will see you in the next video.